"Staffers in the Bureau of Land Management's Washington headquarters could soon join a national federal employees union as BLM moves swiftly to relocate hundreds of positions out West.
The National Treasury Employees Union has filed a formal petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority to establish a collective bargaining unit of NTEU. It would comprise between 140 and 160 D.C.-based employees, most of whom were given reassignment notices in November as part of BLM's ongoing relocation plan.
That plan, which the Interior Department says will place staffers closer to the lands they manage, involves moving as many as 40 employees to the new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo., and more than 200 other positions to state offices from Alaska to Arizona. A staff of about 61 employees would remain in Washington."